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Velnz W201.029

Hi!

I have been registered here for a long time and even had a topic here, but as I see a lot has changed and my old topic is long lost. Since then actually nothing much has changed. Merc was in storage for several years and now I had to figure out what to do. Sell it or keep it and put tons of money in it. Decided the second option, which is why I am here and will have lots of questions to other W201 owners.

The car is 2.6L M103, Manual, and 1990 registration.

Plans for the future - swap to 3.0 M103, lsd diff, bigger brakes and exhaust to hear that beautiful 12v 6cyl music. Will see how fast I will get through this list of my plans.

And here are some pics:

Had a first drive after several years tonight and of course had a suprise - catalyst was all rusted inside and blocked the exhaust. At first I was unable to rev more than 3000rpm, then it almost stalled and then blew up the catalyst. As a temporary fix it will be cleaned and welded together, but this means new exhaust will be necessary. I like how it sounds with exhaust removed, but it is way too loud. If the same tone could be kept, but made quieter, then it would be perfect. So now I am looking for exhaust system. I have no knowledge of exhaust systems at all, so any help with finding the perfect exhaust for M103 will be greatly appreciated.

Oh and forgot to mention, I am from tiny country in East Europe - Latvia. :)

Sooo... about year have passed again. And nothing much have changed except, instead of 3.0 M103 engine, I am now in the middle of M104 2.8L stroker swap. Here's two terrible quality pics of the first evening process. Hopefully within this week new engine will be in and running :)

Sorry about my irregular updates. Car is now running and street legal.

Engine is using original HFM management as I had planned, but I have made exceptions with air filter. Although I said conical filters are out of question, I was unable to find any filter box, that would fit into w201 engine bay next to M104, so conical filter was installed, because urge to drive the car was too big :)

I installed some noname chinese electric cooling fan from ebay, but it works very well.

Fuel pump currently is still from M103 and I believe it might be reason for difficult starting but when started car runs silky smooth at all times.

Here's some pictures

This is where Im test fitting partial filter box from 320cdi, but with it there is not enough space for MAF, so I used the conical which can also be seen in this picture.

To be honest, I still haven't solved the M104 4k rev limiter problem. ECU does not receive signal from its appropriate ABS module about the car movement. This shouldn't be a big problem for electrician to solve, but since it is already winter here, car is now in storage and we will return to this rev problem only next spring.

But even until 4k rpm power is amazing. M103 2.6L or even 3.0L feels slow compared to this. I can't wait to feel the full power this engine can deliver.

Suspension is lowered on TA Technix springs with 60/45mm drop. Wheels are Remotec A, R16 8J ET35 all round, and to me feels like 5 to 10mm spacer in rear needs to be added. And tires are 225/45R16

Regarding airbox, as far as I have seen pictures and videos on internet, airbox from W124 M104 should fit. But apparently W124 with M104 is pretty rare, at least in Latvia, and I haven't came across one in any of the many junkyards I have visited while hunting parts for my merc.

Awesome! My wheels are the same size (even et value) and have lowered the car equally. So gives me a good image of how it will look. I even thought already that the rear could use spacers when I testfitted them.

I think since you have the longer valve cover, you have an electric throttle body? (Drive by wire?)
Don’t know where but I remember I read somewhere about an ASR throttle body that goed in limp mode if not wired correctly. So maybe the 4k rev limiter problem has something to do with that?
(I guess it’s in a topic by secretmachine, or the brown benz m104 topic).

I’m not sticking to oem ecu, throttle body,... and will try to keep the air filter on the cold side of the engine.
But there is even less space between abs and strut tower...

Why did you put the fan before the radiator to push?
Is the fan to large to fit between oulkeys and radiator?

Throttle is controlled by cable, despite it has the later model plastic coil cover. 4k limiter is a problem every M104 swap runs into, if keeping the original HFM ECU. I have very limited knowledge in electronics and on top of that I had to change the electrician in the middle of the whole swap process, but the new electrician says, that he have 2 methods in mind to trick the ECU in thinking the car is moving. 1 - use the same emulator as required for BWW m54 to e30 swaps and adjust it to fit MB. 2 - take the signal from tachometer, to feed the ECU with movement signal, this have also been done on many BMWs.

Sometimes I am asking myself why am I sticking to HFM? But I guess now it is too late to change anything anyway. The last bits have to be done and everything will work perfectly.

On the cold side of engine there is really not much space to place airfilter. But on the hot side, the best solution imho is to use diesel airbox + diesel fender. But then window washer fluid tank has to be moved. My goal is to find W124 airbox and try to fit it. That way it might not get the coldest possible air, but then again Im not building this for maximum performance. I just want reliable smooth cruiser and since my original M103 was close to death, and I was left with the choice to completely rebuild that M103 or swap in a decent M104 I chose the M104.

I had no space to put fan behind radiator to pull. After engine was installed in the car, I found out that fan clutch had about 5 mm clearance from radiator. If felt too close. I know that others have enough space from radiator to original fan or they are ok with such little clearance between radiator and fan. I didn't even try to place electrical radiator inside with pulling configuration, because attaching it outside was way easier and it cools down engine also on hot sunny days in traffic jams, so there is nothing to worry about.

Soorry for being away for that long. Last summer was extremally busy for me with many other non-car related things. But project is alive and well, however I haven't yet solved rev limiter issue, mostly because I drove the car for about 300 miles this summer. Hopefully rev limiter will be done after the winter. But that is what I said last winter aswell

There have been done many other nice things to the car, like full respray :)

Also changed the regular steering box to sportline box, seats, door cards, steering wheel and shifter lever also is from Sportline now. So basically I have made it a proper sportline now, except wheels and springs.

There is difference, steering is now quicker and feels more precise, but change is not dramatic, however if you can get sportline steering box for reasonable price, it is definately worth installing it.

Suspension is 60/45mm lowered springs with standard shock absorbers but shocks are now almost fully depressed all the time because of shorter springs which of course is not good. Shocks will be changed to match the springs later this year. Hopefully.. if I will not be too busy doing other things, like I always do :)